Panama City Beach - Marketing Ideas

PANAMA CITY BEACH — The European tourist market is increasingly eyeing Northwest Florida as a vacation destination, and improving Panama City Beach's visibility overseas will become more important as the new Panama City-Bay County International Airport nears completion.

A market research expert told the full board of the Bay County Tourist Development Council Tuesday that interest in the Florida Panhandle by the European market, which he called a "beach market," was a recent phenomenon. "This is a market that you need to seed now and harvest down the road," said Walter Klages, president of The Klages Group, whose long list of clients includes McDonald's, the National Football League, Pizza Hut and Walt Disney World Inc.

Until that harvest can be achieved, however, tourists traveling by car are still the mainstay of Beach visitors, Klages said, representing about 84 percent in July through September 2008. [I agree with the numbers, they may even be a little low. Over the past year we have only had one couple fly to Panama City Beach to stay in our condos]. He presented a sheaf of statistics to TDC board members on the face of the emblematic Beach tourist.

The typical size of a group of visitors during that period was 3.2 persons, he said, with 8.4 percent representing first-time tourists to the area, most from nearby states such as Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Indeed, today's tourist is becoming increasingly reliant on the Internet for research into choosing a vacation destination, Klages said. And much of the information gleaned from the Web is becoming harder to control, with sites such as YouTube and Facebook becoming more popular.

He forgot the bestpanamacitybeachcondo.com site and jerryeyler wordpressblog about Panama City Beach.

"Consumer-generated information is beginning to dominate the Internet," he said. Because that type of information is irresistibly spreading, he urged board members to aggressively market the Beach's best asset, its uniquely white sand, which he described as rare in the world. To that end, board members decided to move forward on a contract with Jennifer Barbee Inc. to redesign the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau Web site. Barbee has already been working with the TDC/CVB since being chosen a month ago to quickly create a micro-site connected to www.visitpanamacitybeach.com for next year's Spring Break marketing campaign.

Rowe also told board members that the TDC was partnering with Pier Park for a New Year's Eve fireworks display and midnight "Beach Ball drop." An eight-foot glowing ball will be lowered from a 148-foot crane. The fireworks will cost $10,000.

Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can do a more effective job marketing our condos?

Jerry
Best Panama City Beach Condos for Rent